


No Questions Asked

by distant_mother



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Meetings, Hurt Ben Solo, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Graphic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, ben solo has a past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23860324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distant_mother/pseuds/distant_mother
Summary: Their first meeting was, well, unusual.“Punch me.”“What?”“I said punch me. I need to feel it,” she repeated, bouncing on her toes, hands curled in fists as if she was ready to fight.“No,” he said. He absolutely could not punch her. He did not want to punch her.Or: Ben doesn't punch Rey when she asks and a weird relationship develops.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13
Collections: May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Fanworks Exchange 2020





	No Questions Asked

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hello this is me, the writer of this fic!
> 
> This is my first fic ever, my first exchange as well, just thought I'd let you know.  
> Regardless, I hope you enjoy whatever I have written for you. And if you don't... well, happens.

Their first meeting was, well, unusual.

They met at a hospital, more accurately – at its restaurant, if one could call it that. Ben sat at an ugly white table, with his cup of disgusting hospital coffee before him, and contemplated his existence. It was a rather peaceful day, he had just had his eyes checked, and both were completely fine. For some reason, he was reluctant to go home, some invisible hand of fate or some other force was holding him in place, sitting and waiting for something. He felt almost anxious.

And then she came, almost comically crawling into the place, one hand clutching the other’s ring finger which did, in fact, have a ring on it. Her eyes were glassy and shining with unshed tears. She took a seat at a table opposite of Ben, gave one look to a vase full of plastic flowers, then grabbed it and smashed it onto the ground, breaking into full tears and loud sobs immediately after. Shards of porcelain flew across the floor.

Strangely, no one came running with help. The crying woman sat still for a moment, then took off the ring and… God knows what she wanted to do with it, but it slipped from her grasp and fell on the floor, rolling away. She let out a cry and went on to chase it, stopping just before Ben. She raised her head and Ben looked at her.

The woman was gorgeous. Unconventionally beautiful, her hazel eyes rimmed red and shining with tears, pupils blown wide, mouth set in a deep frown. She took his breath away and Ben felt that he couldn’t move. The woman slowly stood before him, looked at him with an expression on her face that could only be described as predatory. And then she sat on his table, took his cup of coffee in her small hands and said,

“In older times, people would kill to know the secrets of making porcelain.” A silence, that probably should’ve been meaningful, followed. Ben looked her in the eyes, then his gaze fell onto the very naked skin of her legs, clad in very short shorts. He looked up again, her lips were painted with the faintest of smiles.

“Before you ask – everyone asks sooner or later – I am absolutely fine in the head. No need to worry,” she said, the faint smile never leaving her mouth that just seconds ago was twisted into the deepest of frowns. Ben swallowed.

“I think your head is perfectly fine. A fine head, yours,” he said in that deep voice of his. She smiled, and he felt like the whole world turned up its brightness to the fullest. Ben followed her movement with his eyes, how she got down from the table, shook her hands and muttered something about having too much energy, being too frustrated and hurt to sit still. And how unlikely of her it was. He said nothing, just looked at her, gazed at her and wondered, _where did she come from?_

Suddenly she was up and moving running along the cafeteria, touching bare walls with her hands, seeming to have completely forgotten the ring, still on the floor, and the shattered vase with fake flowers scattered around. After a moment or two, she came back, stood before him and asked,

“Punch me,”

“What?”

“I said punch me. I need to feel it,” she repeated, bouncing on her toes, hands curled in fists as if she was ready to fight.

“No,” he said. He absolutely could not punch her. He did not want to punch her.

“Please,” she pleaded. “Please, I need to know I’m alive.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“Please.”

“No”

“Then I will punch _you._ ”

A fist came flying to his face, and it almost hit, but then he turned his head and she punched the air inches from his ear. Ben caught her wrist and gave her a stern look. He didn’t know what the fuck was happening, but he will not be punched, he decided.

The woman tried to free her wrist from his grasp, but he didn’t let go.

“Hey! Let me go!”

“If you will punch me again…”

“Okay, okay, I won’t!” He let go. She stood still, looking at him in annoyance, something like desperation intertwined with hunger one her face. They stared at each other for a second or two, not moving, barely breathing. Then she snapped out of it and began once again pacing around restlessly, shaking her hands, her head, bouncing on her toes and heels. Like she had a lot of energy to spare. She probably did.

“You know, I was young then,” she started talking. “Still am, but now it’s the other kind of dumb. Back then, I was young and stupid. We had been dating for a month, and when he asked me to marry him, I said yes. Without hesitation, you know. Pretty fucking stupid, that decision. He wasn’t right for me, not at all. You know, I’m all about moving, doing something, I can’t… I can’t sit still,” she stopped, turned to him and looked at him with pleading eyes. “I cancelled the wedding. And now I got nothing to do, nothing nothing nothing!”

Ben felt strange, out of place. He couldn’t understand why this beautiful woman was gracing him with her life story, or what it was that she wanted from him. It was clear, though, that she needed help, but who was he to give it to her? He was a loner, worked as a data scientist in some unimportant company and despised people. He had anger issues and people were often afraid of him. And he had a _past._

The woman launched at him, like a rocket. He barely had time to step out of her trajectory, so he didn’t. He met her halfway, snaked his arms around her waist and lifted her up, throwing her small and surprisingly strong body over his shoulder. Ben wasn’t sure why he did that, but it seemed like a suitable solution at that time.

“Hey! Let me down, you fucker!” she yelled. He ignored her and proceeded through the glass door of the cafeteria into the corridor with sickeningly white walls and ugly parquet floor, lit by flickering fluorescent lights. The woman once again demanded that he let her down and landed her small fist onto his back, but he didn’t budge.

“If you’re going to kidnap and kill in some fucking alley, I’m going to kill you!” she yelled once more.

“I’m not going to kill you” Ben answered and started going down the stairs to the ground floor. He wasn’t sure where he was carrying her. “I just think… I think that maybe you just need to have sex.”

She stilled on his shoulder. Then asked him to stop and he complied. She kicked a bit, and he let her go, slide to the ground down his front. Suddenly her face was extremely near his and he could smell faint perfume. He looked her in the eyes for a second, and then almost involuntarily dropped his gaze to her lips.

“Oh?” she said in a hushed voice. “Is that a proposition?”

“I don’t know,” he answered and suddenly felt a heap of passion run through his body and he realized that he wanted her, he wanted the woman he just met under some odd circumstances so badly that he was prepared to make it happen just then, in that ugly corridor, on the last step of empty stairs, in the hospital. “Don’t you have better options?”

She smiled, and God, was that a gorgeous smile, with undertones of hunger and passion.

“Right now, I only see the one.” And then she stretched on her toes and her mouth was on his, and their hands immediately took action, winding finger through each other’s hair, circling around waists to press their bodies closer, and then she turned them and pushed him to the wall. Their kiss broke for a moment, but then they were on each other again, and Ben, in the furthest corner of his brain, wondered how the hell did this happen. He didn’t even know her name.

***

It wasn’t even his apartment. He didn’t know whose apartment it was, they kind of just broke in, both of them a stumbling mess, arms and legs intertwined, mouths barely separating to breath. There was a lot of heated action and clothes being thrown all over the floor.

After they lay on the dusty bed, her head upon his shoulder and her nails slightly grazing up and down his chest. Ben stared at the ceiling, counting cracks in the paint. It was rather strange to find himself in this kind of situation. Not that he didn’t sleep with people, he did, but that usually would go wrong very quickly. No one ever explained what was it that made them leave the scene before the action could even begin, but Ben was sure that the problem was him. Maybe he was too demanding, maybe too rough. He asked a girl once, as she was picking up her things and ready to walk through his apartment door. He asked what he did wrong, and she just looked at him, pity clear on her face and said, “I don’t know, it’s just… too much, I guess.” And that was it.

She felt the girl, the woman, the absolute goddess shift. She lifted herself on her elbows and looked down at him, a what seemed as soft and content expression on her face.

“What now?” she asked. Ben didn’t know. He figured it would be best to leave before the actual owners of the apartment show up. He turned his head and looked around the room. All the surfaces were dusty, even the sheets smelled like dust, and the air was thick inside. It didn’t look like someone was actually living here. Not for the past month, at least.

“I’m Rey, by the way.”

There, a name. He won’t have to call her the woman or the girl in his head anymore. He returned his gaze to her hazel eyes and let the faintest of smiles slip. She smiled back, a bright, wide smile that lit up her whole face.

“Ben,” he said. And then immediately cursed himself. Ever since… ever since _that_ happened, he never introduced himself by his real name. He didn’t know what came upon him, to say just give up his name like that, easily, to a girl he doesn’t even know. Startled by his own actions, he got out from the bed and began hurriedly looking for his socks. But that didn’t last long, he quickly gave up and turned back to Rey, still sitting in the mess that was their sheets. She looked so beautiful, sitting there, her short brown hair sticking out in every direction, a little smile playing some wicked game on her lips. Ben let out a sigh, kneeled on the bed in front of her and cupped her face with his big, soft hands. Her eyes widened and he wallowed in the deep brown of her irises.

Suddenly everything that happened came back to him. Ben quickly kissed her forehead and got up once again, this time looking for his clothes for real. He found his trousers and threw them on, then his slightly wrinkled dress shirt and jacket. His socks were still nowhere to be seen.

Ben didn’t exactly know how to be affectionate and sweet. He was a busy man, disliked people and disorder. He definitely wasn’t the kind of man one would see making pancakes on a lazy Sunday morning and sipping coffee in the sunlight. And this, this was somehow awkward and not entirely his scene. The sun started to set for the day, another clear reminder that this event was anything but ordinary.

“Where do you live?” he asked, still searching for his socks, sparing just one little glance at her. She has gotten out of the bed too and started putting on her own clothes. Her hair still looked adorably unruly.

“Jakku,” she answered after a moment of hesitation. Ben sighed an internal sigh. Jakku was the worst part of the city, where various gangs lived and fought for territory and other… stuff. Ben had been there, more than once, but he didn’t like to think about it. A silent question of why and how the hell did such a girl end up there crossed his mind. “What about you?” she asked.

“Just a couple streets away.” He finally found his socks, one hiding under the bed and the other thrown over a lampshade. Ben and Rey both fell silent. He glanced at her while putting on his socks and saw her fully dressed, even with shoes on sitting on the bed. Her right knee was moving up and down, as if she were anxious. Maybe she was. Rey caught him looking and stared into his eyes for a second. Ben felt uneasy. She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. After a moment she opened her mouth again.

“Would it be— “she started, somewhat shy. Ben turned his full attention to her. “Would it be okay if I asked you to walk me home?”

Ben stood there for a moment, stunned. The thought that he had just met her, that she barely knew his name and, for all she knows, he could be a serial killer or something. Why was she trusting him to walk her home safe and untouched? ‘Maybe it’s your height and big hands, you look rather intimidating,’ the unhelpful side of his brain supplied.

“All right,” he said. Not that he had planned anything else to do tonight. He suddenly noticed the shadows roaming the room, a reminder, that his rather eventful day was coming to an end. Ben checked his pockets for his belongings, not wanting to leave anything in a place he will never come back to, and upon finding everything in its place, headed for the door after motioning for Rey to follow.

***

They were slowly making their way through a dark, narrow alley. There were no lights coming out from the windows of the buildings, and the buildings themselves looked somewhat like malevolent ghosts watching their every step, every move. Ben remembered this place from his past visits and, as it did back then, it made the hairs stand up on his neck.

As they moved further from better lit streets, it got darker and darker and eventually, it became too dark to see. Rey pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight without hesitation. Ben wouldn’t have been so sure to do that; hell knows who could be lurking behind dark corners and broken glass windows. But Rey seemed unbothered by the possible threats. They were walking close beside each other, shoulders and hands occasionally touching. Ben let himself think it was because of the narrowness of the alley and not because he enjoyed the thought of Rey wanting to be close to him. No one ever wanted to be close to him, neither physically nor emotionally.

“It’s not that far now, just around that corner,” said Rey. Ben nodded, even though she couldn’t see him do that.

Suddenly, just seconds after Rey’s hushed announcement, a door before them in the left building burst open and a bright yellow rectangle of light spilt onto the ground. Three large men came out and stood before Ben and Rey, bearing hungry and malicious expressions.

Ben heard Rey gasp and mutter something under her nose. Then he felt her hand clutch onto his. Ben sighed an internal sigh and thought to himself that this is probably why Rey had asked him to walk with her. He squared his shoulders, preparing for anything to come.

“Give us ya money and go free,” said the man standing in the middle. He was big and ugly.

“Hey now, maybe we could go free without doing that?” Ben wondered aloud, hoping the situation won’t come to them having to flee or worse, fight. “We are just passing, going home after a day of hard work and...”

“I don’t care, give us the money or we’ll take it ourselves.”

“I don’t think that’s…”

“I don’t fucking care what you think, you little shit,” growled the man in the middle and stepped forward and grabbed the collar of Ben’s coat. The movement brought Ben’s face into the rectangle of light and just before he saw the man’s face go from annoyed to furious, he felt Rey’s fingers slip from his grasp and a little flicker of hope that she ran away crossed his mind.

“Kylo Ren,” spat the man. Ben, now dragged into the light, also recognized the face that was so close to his.

“Unkar,” Ben muttered in acknowledgement. Seemed like his _past_ decided to catch up.

“Tell me, why shouldn’t I just finish you right now and leave dead in this fucking alley?” asked Unkar. He didn’t wait for Ben to answer and he felt a hard fist connect with his stomach. Ben grunted and stumbled back as Unkar let go of his collar. The man gestured to his buddies waiting a little further away.

“Deal with him,” he said and walked backwards. To watch, probably, said the unhelpful side of Ben’s brain. Ben demanded for it to shut up and, with a hand clutching his stomach, stumbled another step back from the approaching men. But suddenly they were very close, and two punches followed. Ben didn’t double over as violently as the first time and managed to throw a few hard punches himself, bruising his knuckles in the process, when suddenly he felt one of the men go limp against him. Ben immediately threw him off and he fell on the ground like a sack of potatoes. He kicked his knee up the other man’s stomach and threw a fist at his face when he doubled over. Then he quickly turned around wanting to see what had made the other man go limp like that, but an ear-piercing scream of a girl thrilled the air. He whipped his head back and saw Unkar clutching Rey’s wrist in his hand.

Ben didn’t think much. Everything happened fast. He suddenly was near the man; he saw his fist flying into Unkar’s face and heard a satisfying crack under his knuckles. Then he grabbed Rey’s hand and, after letting her throw a powerful punch herself, fled.

They turned a corner, then the other, stumbling in the dark alleys and bumping into weird shapes along the buildings’ walls. Then they suddenly stopped running and Ben heard the jingling of keys and a door opening. Then he was pulled into a much darker dark, door shutting behind him.

***

Rey’s flat was small, dusty and not lived in. It looked like that the last time someone sat on the sofa was last year. A clear path could be seen leading from what Ben assumed was kitchen to the closed door of what he guessed was a bedroom.

Rey steered him to the kitchen and sat him on a chair. She looked at him with worry on her face and her gaze reminded him that he got sort of beat up. Along with the realization came the pain. His jaw was throbbing from where one of Unkar’s men punched him. His gut felt like he was stabbed with a blunt knife. His right-hand knuckles were bruised and bleeding.

While he was focused on naming every bit of pain that he felt, Rey, it seemed, had brought her first aid kit from the bathroom.

“This should help with the bruises, at least a bit,” she muttered and started applying some sort of gel onto his jaw. Her fingers felt cool and experienced in taking care of bruising. She was gentle with him, Ben noticed. A completely different person from this morning, he thought.

“Where else you got punched?” she asked. Ben snapped out of his weird daze and shed his coat, then unbuttoned his shirt. A bruise on his ribs was forming. He heard Rey mutter ‘shit’ under her breath and then her cool, gentle fingers were applying the gel once again.

“Won’t they try to get in?” he suddenly asked, worried not for himself, but for Rey. She didn’t even look up.

“They might. Wouldn’t be the first time, though, and they’ve never been able to get through my door. We can always go out the window if things get bad. It’s not that high.”

To Ben, it sounded like a plan she mutters to herself before going to sleep. From what he’s seen, she never spends much time in this tiny flat. He wanted to ask about it, but he figured he’d have to answer questions himself as well, so he decided against it. Rey said nothing else and moved onto cleaning and wrapping his knuckles.

Rey moved on to making tea. She turned the kettle on, grabbed two mugs and two bags of tea. Once it was ready, she poured boiling water in and then set the mugs down on the table, one for Ben and one for herself. Ben just sat there, with his shirt open and a painful bruise on his jaw and ribs. He watched Rey as she sat herself in front of him, all the restlessness and cheeky behaviour from that morning gone as though the wind blew it off.

“Thank you. For walking with me, I mean. And fighting them,” she said, not quite looking at him. “I mean, you just met me. We had just had sex and you didn’t even know my name. Why’d you agree to something like that?”

Ben sat there silent for a moment.

“I don’t know. Didn’t seem like a bad idea, and you looked anxious to go alone,” he finally answered and tried sipping his tea. It burned his tongue and was too strong. “Thank you for patching me up.”

“The least I could do after you jumped in to save me like a fucking prince on a horse. Do you want a biscuit?”

“No, I’m good.” They fell silent after that. The mood was somewhat heavy and dark. Ben wondered if he should go home, but part of him was worried that he wouldn’t be here and couldn’t help if something happened to Rey. The unhelpful side of his brain silently asked since when does he care about other people’s wellbeing.

They sat for a minute or two in complete silence, both with their own thoughts. Then Ben heard Rey mutter something under her nose.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I didn’t mean for you to see my apartment,” she said, louder this time.

“It’s… well, it’s nice.” It wasn’t nice. It was old, cold and unwelcoming. Rey snorted.

“It’s shit. Well, it’s not like I can afford anything better.” Once again, Ben wanted to ask questions he felt weren’t his to ask. Not now, at least.

Suddenly he felt Rey’s stare and looked up. Her brown eyes were gazing intently at him.

“Why did Unkar call you Kyle Ron, or something? Do you know him?” There, the question he was afraid of being asked, the question he didn’t want to answer. He turned his gaze away from her and didn’t answer for a while. Sipped on his still too hot, still too strong tea.

“Some people know me as Kylo Ren instead of Ben,” he said finally, choosing not to elaborate on his ties to Unkar.

“Why?”

“It’s got to do something with what I did, what I was doing a few years ago.”

“Okay, Mr Vague Answers.” He looked up at that, a small smile found its way onto his lips. “Are you still involved in whatever it was that you did? Do you want me to call you Kylo Ren?”

“Please don’t. Ben is okay. And no, I’m not doing that anymore and never will do it again.”

“Right. Ben it is.”

There, his chance to ask something about her. She knows his other name now; knows he did something that ties him to Unkar in his past. Why not ask her the same thing? No, Ben decided. She’ll tell me someday. If it comes to that. If we’ll meet again, that is.

“You’re welcome to stay and take the couch,” he heard Rey say. Then she stood up and reached out her hand. Suddenly he felt her fingers in his hair, brushing away from his forehead. He looked up to find her looking at him in awe.

“So soft,” she muttered quietly. Then her fingers were gone, as was she, and only a whisper of ‘I’m going to bed’ reached Ben’s ears from the corridor.

Ben sat in the kitchen for like five minutes more, then got up, buttoned his shirt and threw on his coat. He decided he won’t stay the night. He needed to get home, and a dusty couch probably wouldn’t do any good to his aching and bruised body.

He didn’t want to go out the door and leave it unlocked, so he decided to go out the window. It wasn’t gracious as Ben was a little too big to be gracious while climbing out the window. It wasn’t that high, just as Rey had said, but his beaten body still didn’t take the jump lightly. He figured it was worth it if it meant that Rey’s door remained locked from the inside. With one last glance thrown at the open window, Ben headed home.

He figured it would be a bit ungracious to leave like that, without saying goodbye, and through a window. Besides, he wanted to see Rey again. Be it for the pleasure, be it for the unasked and unanswered questions, be it for some other reason. The truth was, he wanted to see her again, so he left a bright pink post-it note he found in his coat pocket with his phone number and address on it. He hoped she would text or call him. Or even come visit him unannounced. He felt that he wouldn’t mind that.


End file.
